[cma-l] Ofcom publishes illegal broadcasting factsheet

[Clive Glover]

Hmmm. We have suffered from serious interference from a London-based  
pirate for the whole of the time we have been broadcasting over the  
past year. We have made repeated complaints to OFCOM and they have  
taken some action, but largely confined to taking down antennas and  
removing transmitters. The pirate uses high powered transmitters of  
3-400 watts and covers an area similar to the major commercial  
operators in London (out as far as Cambridge and Guildford). After any  
action by OFCOM they are usually back on air within 48 hours.

We  did our own investigations and gave OFCOM details of websites  
(including Facebook pages for many of the DJs),  and mobile phone  
providers and action was taken to close these down. We also listed  
apparent advertisers (mainly nightclubs, including some very well  
known ones) who we assume were then contacted by OFCOM. This has  
certainly set the pirates back a bit, but we are pessimistic that  
OFCOM will ever be able to close them down for good. It seems that the  
number of OFCOM staff involved in anti-pirate action has been  
drastically reduced in recent years and they simply cannot cope. Over  
any weekend the number of pirates operating in London is probably 20  
to 30 at least and I suspect many of them are making a lot of money.

One problem is that anyone charged with offences under the  
Broadcasting Act is rarely given more than a relatively small fine  
(£1,000 or so). Although these offences can theoretically result in  
large fines or even imprisonment, judges & juries simply do not regard  
them as being serious crimes and so the punishments even when caught  
are minimal (and the risk of being caught appears to be very small  
indeed). We have also found that the police are not even slightly  
interested and simply say that it is for OFCOM to deal with pirates,  
even when there is evidence of other criminal activities.

So the obvious route for OFCOM is spin - produce a glossy leaflet to  
tell us what they are supposed to be doing and why!

Clive Glover

Radio Verulam 92.6 FM
St Albans


On 6 Aug 2008, at 13:34, CMA-L wrote:

> Illegal broadcasting is a menace which can cause interference to
> safety of life communications services and legal radio stations,
> denying listeners their choice of service. Ofcom, together with the
> police and local authorities takes swift action against this illegal
> activity. Ofcom today published a factsheet on its work in tackling
> illegal broadcasting, which contains information on how to contact
> Ofcom to report illegal broadcasters.
>
> The factsheet can be found at:
> http://www.ofcom.org.uk/radiocomms/ifi/enforcement/illegalbroadcast/factsheet.pdf
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